Abstract

A poly(glycolide) (PGA) fiber-reinforced hydroxyapatite/poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (HA/PLGA) composite with high mechanical strength has been prepared previously. In this paper, in vitro degradation of ternary composites with different contents of PGA fibers (0, 30, 50 and 70 wt%) was investigated. Water absorption showed a marked increase as the degradation progressed, and the composite with 70 wt% PGA fibers showed the highest final water uptake which was 3.89 times higher than the initial value. The mass loss of the composite with 70 wt% PGA fibers was 79.3 ± 6.47% at 16 weeks, which was the highest among all the composites. The molecular weight of the PLGA matrix decreased over time especially for the composites containing 70 wt% PGA fibers. The lowest pH of the buffer solution was also observed in the composite with 70 wt% PGA fibers. Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) results demonstrated that the porosity of the composites and the size of the pores gradually increased as the degradation progressed. The most significant change in compression strength was observed for the composite with 70 wt% PGA fibers which was reduced from an initial value of 20 MPa to approximately 1 MPa at 16 weeks. The results indicated that the in vitro degradation of the composites could be accelerated by increasing the content of PGA fibers. It implied that the ternary composites might be a candidate for the repair of non-load bearing or cancellous bone which needs high initial strength and fast degradation rate.

Authors contributing to RSC publications (journal articles, books or book chapters)
do not need to formally request permission to reproduce material contained in this
article provided that the correct acknowledgement is given with the reproduced material.

Reproduced material should be attributed as follows:

For reproduction of material from NJC:
Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (CNRS) and The Royal Society of Chemistry.

For reproduction of material from PCCP:
Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the PCCP Owner Societies.

For reproduction of material from PPS:
Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the European Society for Photobiology,
the European Photochemistry Association, and The Royal Society of Chemistry.

For reproduction of material from all other RSC journals and books:
Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from The Royal Society of Chemistry.

If the material has been adapted instead of reproduced from the original RSC publication
"Reproduced from" can be substituted with "Adapted from".

In all cases the Ref. XX is the XXth reference in the list of references.

If you are the author of this article you do not need to formally request permission
to reproduce figures, diagrams etc. contained in this article in third party publications
or in a thesis or dissertation provided that the correct acknowledgement is given
with the reproduced material.

Reproduced material should be attributed as follows:

For reproduction of material from NJC:
[Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) on behalf of the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the RSC

For reproduction of material from PCCP:
[Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of the PCCP Owner Societies

For reproduction of material from PPS:
[Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) on behalf of the
European Society for Photobiology, the European Photochemistry Association, and
RSC

For reproduction of material from all other RSC journals:
[Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry

If you are the author of this article you still need to obtain permission to reproduce
the whole article in a third party publication with the exception of reproduction
of the whole article in a thesis or dissertation.

Information about reproducing material from RSC articles with different licences
is available on our Permission Requests page.